Unlike Chrome, Firefox hides the reset option in an unexpected location. You won’t find it under Firefox Preferences, which is probably where you’d expect it. Instead, you’ll find it under Help > Troubleshooting Information, packaged as the Refresh Firefox… button.

We recommend saving the reset option as your last resort. If you need to troubleshoot, try starting with Firefox’s Safe Mode first.

The Safe Mode option restarts Firefox with the add-ons disabled and certain settings turned off, making it easier to pinpoint rogue extensions and settings by turning them on one by one and observing what’s different about Firefox’s behavior in the normal and safe modes.

Refreshing Firefox can be quite convenient if you want to fix browser performance, go back from your experimental Firefox changes, reverse the changes made by sneaky toolbars, etc. But do not take it lightly!

Have you ever reset Firefox as part of troubleshooting? Did it fix the problems that you were hoping it would?

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Anonymous

March 2, 2016 at 4:45 am

Thanks Akshata. I wish it would work by creating a new reset profile that you could then start up but at least there is no data loss the way they do it and you can jimmy the old back into the profile directory if you know what you're doing.

Yeah...you can restore data from that profile folder if needed, but like you have said, you need to know what you're doing. Otherwise, you might just end up sort of importing the problems you had before the reset.

Akshata trained in manual testing, animation, and UX design before focusing on technology and writing. This brought together two of her favorite activities — making sense of systems and simplifying jargon. At MakeUseOf, Akshata writes about making the best of your MacBook.